"Day and Age" is the new release from the Twin Cities' premiere progressive 'chamber jazz' trio Triplicate. This is the second release from this band. Triplicate is composed of top Twin Cities' musicians Joel Shapira on electric guitar, Bruce "Pooch" Heine on acoustic & electric bass, and David Stanoch on drums. This CD satisfies the listener with a variety of tunes with passages evoking emotions from broody contemplation to giddy exuberance.

All members of this band display their compositional skills on this recording. It opens with "Hit on Twelve" penned by Joel Shapira. This tune has a haunting middle-eastern melody that rides over an infectious groove that evokes the exotic and sets the stage for the rest of the album by preparing us to listen to something new, even in the familiar. This CD is thinking man's music that doesn't leave out the body or soul and engages the listener on different levels. Like the oft-recorded standard "On Green Dolphin Street" which is presented with a fresh approach. Beginning with gentle chords and a light Latin treatment on the drums, the bass is mainly petal point during Joel's guitar solo then suddenly Pooch changes to a walking bass line and the drum work is more swinging and the tune just opens up like an orchid revealing it's delicate beauty.

This is followed by the bebop standard "Move", which is true to its name and really moves with Stanoch pushing the tempo. This tune also features Stanoch on a wonderfully musical drum solo. The pace is taken down several notches on the next tune, Miles Davis' (or Bill Evans') beautiful ballad "Blue and Green" from the the 1959 "Kind of Blue". Another from Joel Shapira, "Fowl Language" uses the the musical language of Charlie Parker, aka Bird. This is followed by a reverent but edgy treatment of Monk's "Epistory".

The ten tracks on this CD are evenly divided between originals and original takes on standards - if you consider John Mclaughlin's "Dance of the Maya" from the Mahavishnu Orchestra's seminal fusion album "Inner Mounting Flame" a standard. Throughout it all this band never loses cohesion. The musicians function as a single unit intertwining their individual strands of sound into a delightful aural tapestry.

I highly recommend this CD.

Catch the CD release celebration at the Dakota, 1010 Nicolett Mall in Minneapolis on February 17th.